Phoenix Deploys A Wi-Fi Canopy To Close The Digital Divide For Students

0
170
Phoenix Deploys A Wi-Fi Canopy To Close The Digital Divide For Students
Phoenix Deploys A Wi-Fi Canopy To Close The Digital Divide For Students

Cartwright Elementary School District

The Cartwright Elementary School District has approximately 15,000 students.

Phoenix says it has found a long-term solution to bridge the digital divide for students. On Wednesday, three school districts – Alhambra Elementary, Cartwright Elementary, and Phoenix Union High School – will be the first to benefit.

smiling woman

Cartwright Elementary School District

Victoria Farrar is the Chief Financial Officer of the Cartwright Elementary School District in Phoenix.

The digital divide isn’t just about whether someone can afford high-speed internet service. It’s also about aging or a lack of infrastructure, as experienced Victoria Farrar, Chief Financial Officer of the Cartwright District in west Phoenix.

“Only the quality of the connection and the stability of the connection were also an issue,” she said.

Phoenix College found a way to leverage existing technology to provide students with a Wi-Fi canopy to access free, secure, high-speed connections for virtual classrooms, teacher meetings, homework, and more.

The city used $ 12 million in federal aid to launch a project called the Phoenix Digital Education Connection Canopy (PHX DECC). Councilor Laura Pastor, a board member of the Phoenix Union High School District and director of community relations at Phoenix College, gathered people to work on a solution.

“It’s the silver lining of the pandemic cloud,” she said in a statement. “Children no longer have to sit in library or café parking lots to get access to high-speed broadband to do their homework.”

“This is a long-term technology solution.”
– Christine Mackay

“This is not a short-term pandemic solution, this is a long-term technology solution,” said Christine Mackay, director of economic development at Phoenix.

She said the project opened her eyes to how deep the gap was. Mackay says more than half of students in the Phoenix Union District don’t have online access at home.

“That should worry everyone, whether you’re looking for a future workforce, whether we’re trying to attract companies or train students,” she said.

The Canopy Project is set to cover 250,000 families, including approximately 15,000 college students in Farrar District.

“It means parents don’t have to struggle to keep their children safe online.”
– Victoria Farrar

“That means they no longer have to watch their families struggle to get Internet resources available. It means parents don’t have to struggle to keep their children safe online, ”she said. “This means that we can implement our textbook resources and teaching content entirely online without worrying about paying an ISP or worrying about losing this connection because someone else is using it for something else.”

Telecommunications companies are generally against cities and schools offering broadband services, according to a city news release, but the Southwest Telecommunications Association supports the effort.

masked student sits at the desk

Cartwright Elementary School District

Cartwright Elementary School District, west of Phoenix, will be among the first to benefit from a new program to provide high-speed broadband access.

“We don’t want government agencies to compete with private companies; this system does not compete, ”said Susan Bitter Smith, executive director of the Southwest Cable Communications Association. “The association has understood the needs of communities and the (PHX DECC )’s unique connection between students and classrooms is to help underserved communities who need them.”

Here is a breakdown of the funding sources for the $ 34 million project:

  • City of Phoenix, $ 12 million
  • Phoenix College, $ 100,000
  • Phoenix Union High School District, $ 2 million
  • Alhambra Elementary School District, $ 150,000
  • Cartwright Elementary District, $ 150,000

Phoenix expects the difference to be funded with grants and contributions from the business community.

EDITOR’S NOTE: KJZZ is licensed to the Maricopa County Community College District.

More stories from KJZZ

[ad_2]